August 2024 Exhibition
Imogen Gallery
Matthew Dennison
Abducent Sea
August 10 – September 9, 2024
We are excited to host a second solo exhibition for artist Matthew Dennison and his latest series of paintings titled Abducent Sea. Known for his personality filled portraiture paintings of animals, Dennison shifts it up going back to his love of figurative painting. This current collection includes work that takes a strong narrative turn; each painting beckoning with a story waiting to be told. Dennison takes a serious look at our connection to place and our coexistence with the natural world. With a strong nod to nostalgia and a simpler time, he portrays the delicate balance of life on the edge. Stop in to meet Matthew, he’ll be present and available to answer questions about his work during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Aug 10, 5 – 8 pm. The exhibition will be on view through September 9th.
Abducent Sea, Matthew Dennison’s latest series of oil paintings includes a strong sense of youthfulness and a sense of abandonment that for many might remind them of times long ago. Depictions of youth enjoying the abundance the great outdoors that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Simple things like lounging in a rowboat, swimmers frolicking in a lake and enjoying the long days of summer in its simplest and purest form. The show title, Abducent Sea gives hints to Dennison’s thoughts about this series. The term abducent means pulling away, a movement controlled by muscle reaction and/or tension. Dennison describes this series as a place where he “seeks a sense of otherness, or perhaps a connection to a world fostered by place and history, a lost world where I memorialize what I find and form a visual text anchored around a larger idea about the paradox of orientation in the natural world and how it is threaded into our daily lives.” With saturated bright and energetic colors, Dennison conveys a sense of freedom and joie de vivre, living in the moment and untethered to realities of contemporary culture, perhaps with the intent of “pulling away” from technology and ideals of today.
Dennison, a long-time contributor to the Northwest’s art community has enjoyed a notable career, exhibiting his work extensively throughout the region as well as Chicago and the east coast. His work is included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum as well as many corporate and private collections around the world. Most recently his painting “North Cascades” (from the Abducent Sea series) was featured on the Spring edition cover of The Café Review, a quarterly poetry and visual art publication based in Portland, Maine. They also featured several other paintings by Dennison within the publication.
Imogen Gallery
Matthew Dennison
Abducent Sea
August 10 – September 9, 2024
We are excited to host a second solo exhibition for artist Matthew Dennison and his latest series of paintings titled Abducent Sea. Known for his personality filled portraiture paintings of animals, Dennison shifts it up going back to his love of figurative painting. This current collection includes work that takes a strong narrative turn; each painting beckoning with a story waiting to be told. Dennison takes a serious look at our connection to place and our coexistence with the natural world. With a strong nod to nostalgia and a simpler time, he portrays the delicate balance of life on the edge. Stop in to meet Matthew, he’ll be present and available to answer questions about his work during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, Aug 10, 5 – 8 pm. The exhibition will be on view through September 9th.
Abducent Sea, Matthew Dennison’s latest series of oil paintings includes a strong sense of youthfulness and a sense of abandonment that for many might remind them of times long ago. Depictions of youth enjoying the abundance the great outdoors that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Simple things like lounging in a rowboat, swimmers frolicking in a lake and enjoying the long days of summer in its simplest and purest form. The show title, Abducent Sea gives hints to Dennison’s thoughts about this series. The term abducent means pulling away, a movement controlled by muscle reaction and/or tension. Dennison describes this series as a place where he “seeks a sense of otherness, or perhaps a connection to a world fostered by place and history, a lost world where I memorialize what I find and form a visual text anchored around a larger idea about the paradox of orientation in the natural world and how it is threaded into our daily lives.” With saturated bright and energetic colors, Dennison conveys a sense of freedom and joie de vivre, living in the moment and untethered to realities of contemporary culture, perhaps with the intent of “pulling away” from technology and ideals of today.
Dennison, a long-time contributor to the Northwest’s art community has enjoyed a notable career, exhibiting his work extensively throughout the region as well as Chicago and the east coast. His work is included to the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum as well as many corporate and private collections around the world. Most recently his painting “North Cascades” (from the Abducent Sea series) was featured on the Spring edition cover of The Café Review, a quarterly poetry and visual art publication based in Portland, Maine. They also featured several other paintings by Dennison within the publication.
July 2024 Exhibit
Tom Cramer
Electric Garden and More New Works
July 13 – August 5
We are thrilled to welcome back the renowned Portland artist Tom Cramer. He brings bold, complex, color saturated oil paintings along with carved and painted wood relief wall pieces, and wood burned oil paintings. This series, Electric Garden is a fresh and bold abstract series, exuding contagious, uplifting energy, of the enigmatic Tom Cramer, both in his paintings and his personality. Stop by and say hello to Tom who will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm during artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through August 5th.
Cramer has been at the epicenter of the Portland art scene for decades as an exhibiting artist as well as creating public art. For years, many things have acted as a canvas to Cramer, utilizing furniture, cars, buildings, the ballet; these are just a sample of the channels for his creative self-expression. Within this series his collector’s might note a shift in style as he merges into a new era. His work continues with a strong anchor in use of color and pattern, echoing his long interest in Eastern spirituality, music, and botany. Cramer utilizes organized color, line, and form to suggest geometry, that then in entirety becomes a vessel of essence and/or spirituality.
Art critic, author and curator Richard Speer, who in 2019 curated a retrospective exhibition of Cramer’s for an exhibition at the Jorden Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, recently had the opportunity to visit with Cramer and shared this about his visit: “I had a spirited studio visit with artist Tom Cramer, who definitely qualifies as a living legend of the Pacific Northwest art scene: someone with a bigger-than-life persona, a wide and loyal following, and a distinctive artistic style. I saw many of the pieces slated for that show: oil paintings on linen as well as mixed-media relief paintings on carved panel. The work is exuberant, jazzy, splashy, kicky, psychedelic, as we’ve come to expect from Tom. There’s a sensual, tropical vibe to several of the paintings and a bejeweled motif in others that puts me in mind of Gustav Klimt. Tom has always had a strong sense of line, which is why I find a stained-glass, Rouault-like quality to the abstract and biomorphic shapes in his oil paintings, however, in several of the new works the shapes jostle and float in undelineated space, as if held together by an unseen gravitational or magnetic force.”
A conversation with Cramer always leads into avenues that may have been little explored or considered, full of energy, ideas, and many twists. Cramer’s paintings reflect very much the same and are in many ways a direct reference to his own experiences. Drawing inspiration from intense periods of travel and engaging on a deep and personal level in what he considers to be older and wiser cultures, has helped him to create “an art driven by emotional content.” About this series “Electric Garden,” Cramer states: “I’m interested in Synesthesia- hearing color and seeing sound, a transference of senses. For example, when we hear Debussy we might see Monet and when we see Monet we might hear Debussy’s music…etc. For almost every piece of music, pictures form in the mind. The history of art and the history of music are one and the same- for every art movement- there is a corresponding music that goes with it. I’m interested in forming images in the viewers head enough so that the viewer is a participant in the content of the piece. Within this series, for example - more organic pieces seeming to elicit a feeling of organic plant life, not actual paintings of plants but the viewer may perceive them as such. In the same manner, the more rectilinear ones might suggest the human construct. That being said, I’m against interpretation and prefer for the viewer to decide what it all means for and to them, emotional content is the ultimate goal.
It’s with this in mind that Tom is offering his paintings at levels that all can afford. His goal is simple and straight forward; to put art in the hands and hearts of all who will benefit from living with original artwork. Each painting holds spirit and soul, and much like music or poetry it has the profound ability to carry those who engage, to a better place whether it be momentary or forever.
Cramer’s formal training began at PNCA in Portland and then on to Pratt Institute in New York. He has enjoyed a long and diverse career, showing in many reputable Northwest galleries over the years, including Russo Lee Gallery and Augen Gallery, both in Portland. His work has been exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum as well as many other prestigious visual art venues. Cramer’s work is also included to the permanent collections of Microsoft, Inc, Portland Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Boise Art Museum, and many other highly regarded institutions.
Tom Cramer
Electric Garden and More New Works
July 13 – August 5
We are thrilled to welcome back the renowned Portland artist Tom Cramer. He brings bold, complex, color saturated oil paintings along with carved and painted wood relief wall pieces, and wood burned oil paintings. This series, Electric Garden is a fresh and bold abstract series, exuding contagious, uplifting energy, of the enigmatic Tom Cramer, both in his paintings and his personality. Stop by and say hello to Tom who will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm during artwalk. The exhibition will remain on view through August 5th.
Cramer has been at the epicenter of the Portland art scene for decades as an exhibiting artist as well as creating public art. For years, many things have acted as a canvas to Cramer, utilizing furniture, cars, buildings, the ballet; these are just a sample of the channels for his creative self-expression. Within this series his collector’s might note a shift in style as he merges into a new era. His work continues with a strong anchor in use of color and pattern, echoing his long interest in Eastern spirituality, music, and botany. Cramer utilizes organized color, line, and form to suggest geometry, that then in entirety becomes a vessel of essence and/or spirituality.
Art critic, author and curator Richard Speer, who in 2019 curated a retrospective exhibition of Cramer’s for an exhibition at the Jorden Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, recently had the opportunity to visit with Cramer and shared this about his visit: “I had a spirited studio visit with artist Tom Cramer, who definitely qualifies as a living legend of the Pacific Northwest art scene: someone with a bigger-than-life persona, a wide and loyal following, and a distinctive artistic style. I saw many of the pieces slated for that show: oil paintings on linen as well as mixed-media relief paintings on carved panel. The work is exuberant, jazzy, splashy, kicky, psychedelic, as we’ve come to expect from Tom. There’s a sensual, tropical vibe to several of the paintings and a bejeweled motif in others that puts me in mind of Gustav Klimt. Tom has always had a strong sense of line, which is why I find a stained-glass, Rouault-like quality to the abstract and biomorphic shapes in his oil paintings, however, in several of the new works the shapes jostle and float in undelineated space, as if held together by an unseen gravitational or magnetic force.”
A conversation with Cramer always leads into avenues that may have been little explored or considered, full of energy, ideas, and many twists. Cramer’s paintings reflect very much the same and are in many ways a direct reference to his own experiences. Drawing inspiration from intense periods of travel and engaging on a deep and personal level in what he considers to be older and wiser cultures, has helped him to create “an art driven by emotional content.” About this series “Electric Garden,” Cramer states: “I’m interested in Synesthesia- hearing color and seeing sound, a transference of senses. For example, when we hear Debussy we might see Monet and when we see Monet we might hear Debussy’s music…etc. For almost every piece of music, pictures form in the mind. The history of art and the history of music are one and the same- for every art movement- there is a corresponding music that goes with it. I’m interested in forming images in the viewers head enough so that the viewer is a participant in the content of the piece. Within this series, for example - more organic pieces seeming to elicit a feeling of organic plant life, not actual paintings of plants but the viewer may perceive them as such. In the same manner, the more rectilinear ones might suggest the human construct. That being said, I’m against interpretation and prefer for the viewer to decide what it all means for and to them, emotional content is the ultimate goal.
It’s with this in mind that Tom is offering his paintings at levels that all can afford. His goal is simple and straight forward; to put art in the hands and hearts of all who will benefit from living with original artwork. Each painting holds spirit and soul, and much like music or poetry it has the profound ability to carry those who engage, to a better place whether it be momentary or forever.
Cramer’s formal training began at PNCA in Portland and then on to Pratt Institute in New York. He has enjoyed a long and diverse career, showing in many reputable Northwest galleries over the years, including Russo Lee Gallery and Augen Gallery, both in Portland. His work has been exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum as well as many other prestigious visual art venues. Cramer’s work is also included to the permanent collections of Microsoft, Inc, Portland Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Boise Art Museum, and many other highly regarded institutions.
June 2024 Exhibit
Michelle Muldrow - Journey to the Setting Sun
Elise Wagner - Wonder Lands
June 8 – July 8
For the month of June we are excited to host two solo exhibitions by two highly respected Northwest artists. In our south gallery we present the second solo exhibition for Portland based artist Michelle Muldrow, bringing her newest series Journey to the Setting Sun. Her paintings are a conceptual exploration of the American landscape and identity. In our front gallery we are honored to present a new series of abstract encaustic paintings by Elise Wagner, Wonder Lands. Beginning this series during the pandemic, it reflects dramatic life changes for her personally, including a move to Astoria where her love and appreciation of the natural world merged into her exquisite art making practice.
Michelle Muldrow who is well versed in the arts, is a nationally recognized painter and singer/songwriter. She brings a new collection of paintings exploring the relationships between landscape, consumerism, historical aesthetic philosophy and personal narrative. Working in casein on panel with a muted palette, she applies philosophical ideas to American landscape painting, using historical precedents while considering the contemporary experience to reach an understanding of America. A sense of nostalgia marks her gestural style and sense of composition. Her chosen medium casein is itself historical in nature being one of the original forms of paint, dating back to prehistoric times and utilized in early cave paintings. The medium, soft in tonality with a matte finish lends itself perfectly to her painting style, evoking a dreamlike imprint of memory.
For Muldrow, this series is a continuation of past bodies of work, always considering man’s impact on an ever-changing landscape. Searching for visual cues or indication of economy, historic remnants offer clues of cultural identity of place. While creating this series Muldrow found herself thinking about the great painters of the Romanticism period, the epic paintings of Turner, Whistler, and Bierstadt. Each focusing on landscape, depicting the changing time due to industrialization, the fall of empires, changing philosophy of life itself in the midst of the Westward Expansion of America, a new world emerging. Specific to this series she states: “I have always been a hunter and gatherer of imagery defining America through landscape and its markers, iconography, conscious and unconscious. Finding myself making work for this show, I am ruminating - what does history teach us? Does history repeat itself? It feels like uncharted waters, yet I am fascinated by the elements that mirror the past, even as I am frightened with this inchoate feeling, looking out upon a horizon that I truly cannot see beyond.”
Muldrow has exhibited her work extensively throughout the country, from New York to Los Angeles with many stops in between. She is a 2021 recipient of a Provincetown Art Museum/Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant and has her work included to many private and corporate collections, including the Microsoft Corporate Art Collection, the Cleveland Clinic Art Collection, Gerard Louis-Dreyfus Art Collection, and many others.
Elise Wagner, known internationally for her innovative processes and work with encaustic, brings a new series, titled Wonder Lands. This series is her own self-described “love letter” to the Pacific Northwest. Wagner merges her incredible skills and knowledge of the ancient process of encaustic painting with abstraction, this time utilizing the inescapable and dramatic landscape we are fortunate to live within, as inspiration. Her work, always rooted in science, is still an exploration of topography and geology, but now finding anchor in horizon line, the mystical place where sky meets water and then its followed connection to land.
Beginning this series in 2020, it reflects the dramatic changes for her, including her move to the small river town on the banks of the Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon. Within this body of work that has slowly been coaxed from surface over four years, Wagner brings exciting, small-scale yet evocative pieces, leaning heavily into geography. Each gem-like piece evolved at its own pace with layers of sheer color applied, taken away and etched into with patience, by the hand of the artist to reveal a sense of mysticism and reverence for the land. A true “love letter” indeed.
Wagner is known as a prolific, hands-on kind of artist, never to sit idle with a decades long career that is nothing short of inspiring through her commitment and drive as a fine artist. She is a recipient of a Pollack Krasner Foundation Award as well as receiving grants from the Oregon Arts Commission with work found in both private and corporate collections across the US, Canada, and Mexico. As an educator she has been invited to teach and present encaustic painting and printmaking at conferences and institutions Internationally and currently teaches virtual and private workshops. Currently her work can be seen in established art galleries from Astoria, to New York and Seattle to Washington DC.
Michelle Muldrow - Journey to the Setting Sun
Elise Wagner - Wonder Lands
June 8 – July 8
For the month of June we are excited to host two solo exhibitions by two highly respected Northwest artists. In our south gallery we present the second solo exhibition for Portland based artist Michelle Muldrow, bringing her newest series Journey to the Setting Sun. Her paintings are a conceptual exploration of the American landscape and identity. In our front gallery we are honored to present a new series of abstract encaustic paintings by Elise Wagner, Wonder Lands. Beginning this series during the pandemic, it reflects dramatic life changes for her personally, including a move to Astoria where her love and appreciation of the natural world merged into her exquisite art making practice.
Michelle Muldrow who is well versed in the arts, is a nationally recognized painter and singer/songwriter. She brings a new collection of paintings exploring the relationships between landscape, consumerism, historical aesthetic philosophy and personal narrative. Working in casein on panel with a muted palette, she applies philosophical ideas to American landscape painting, using historical precedents while considering the contemporary experience to reach an understanding of America. A sense of nostalgia marks her gestural style and sense of composition. Her chosen medium casein is itself historical in nature being one of the original forms of paint, dating back to prehistoric times and utilized in early cave paintings. The medium, soft in tonality with a matte finish lends itself perfectly to her painting style, evoking a dreamlike imprint of memory.
For Muldrow, this series is a continuation of past bodies of work, always considering man’s impact on an ever-changing landscape. Searching for visual cues or indication of economy, historic remnants offer clues of cultural identity of place. While creating this series Muldrow found herself thinking about the great painters of the Romanticism period, the epic paintings of Turner, Whistler, and Bierstadt. Each focusing on landscape, depicting the changing time due to industrialization, the fall of empires, changing philosophy of life itself in the midst of the Westward Expansion of America, a new world emerging. Specific to this series she states: “I have always been a hunter and gatherer of imagery defining America through landscape and its markers, iconography, conscious and unconscious. Finding myself making work for this show, I am ruminating - what does history teach us? Does history repeat itself? It feels like uncharted waters, yet I am fascinated by the elements that mirror the past, even as I am frightened with this inchoate feeling, looking out upon a horizon that I truly cannot see beyond.”
Muldrow has exhibited her work extensively throughout the country, from New York to Los Angeles with many stops in between. She is a 2021 recipient of a Provincetown Art Museum/Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant and has her work included to many private and corporate collections, including the Microsoft Corporate Art Collection, the Cleveland Clinic Art Collection, Gerard Louis-Dreyfus Art Collection, and many others.
Elise Wagner, known internationally for her innovative processes and work with encaustic, brings a new series, titled Wonder Lands. This series is her own self-described “love letter” to the Pacific Northwest. Wagner merges her incredible skills and knowledge of the ancient process of encaustic painting with abstraction, this time utilizing the inescapable and dramatic landscape we are fortunate to live within, as inspiration. Her work, always rooted in science, is still an exploration of topography and geology, but now finding anchor in horizon line, the mystical place where sky meets water and then its followed connection to land.
Beginning this series in 2020, it reflects the dramatic changes for her, including her move to the small river town on the banks of the Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon. Within this body of work that has slowly been coaxed from surface over four years, Wagner brings exciting, small-scale yet evocative pieces, leaning heavily into geography. Each gem-like piece evolved at its own pace with layers of sheer color applied, taken away and etched into with patience, by the hand of the artist to reveal a sense of mysticism and reverence for the land. A true “love letter” indeed.
Wagner is known as a prolific, hands-on kind of artist, never to sit idle with a decades long career that is nothing short of inspiring through her commitment and drive as a fine artist. She is a recipient of a Pollack Krasner Foundation Award as well as receiving grants from the Oregon Arts Commission with work found in both private and corporate collections across the US, Canada, and Mexico. As an educator she has been invited to teach and present encaustic painting and printmaking at conferences and institutions Internationally and currently teaches virtual and private workshops. Currently her work can be seen in established art galleries from Astoria, to New York and Seattle to Washington DC.
May 2024 News
April Coppini
The Pond
We are thrilled to welcome back April Coppini with a new series of charcoal drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a much-anticipated series of gorgeously rendered charcoal (with an occasional punch of pastel) drawings; her first solo show in over two years. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. This series began its inception from stolen moments of quiet meditation along the banks of a pond. Coppini took solace watching the wildlife within their habitat, finding peace in the rhythm of life from a pond’s edge. The exhibition opens May 11 during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, from 12 – 8 pm and will remain on display through June 3.
After a forced creative hiatus due to circumstances beyond her control, Coppini delivers a new series of expressive and animated drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she portrays a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level.
Coppini tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium because of “its immediacy and forgiving nature.” For her, the starkness of black on white strikes a basic and guttural cord. Within this series there are several pieces that include color, utilized with care to define emotive qualities or even echo elements of subject matter while still allowing for the dominant line of charcoal to do its work. The stark juxtaposition lends to the overall power and drama conveyed in each piece.
This current series began while Coppini was in New York with her eldest child, awaiting a complicated surgery and during the long days of recovery, post op. Coppini had/has little down time where she can focus on her career, the career that supports her and her 3 children. It is through her own tenacity that she was able to create this series of work, having had to cancel multiple exhibitions over the past two years. This body of work echoes the tenacity of life at the side of a pond within a city, the delicate balance of the natural world versus manmade. Within that balance there is still room for nature to thrive, Coppini depicts the quiet beauty that helped keep her grounded during a difficult time.
About this series, The Pond, Coppini candidly brings honesty and reality and shares the tribulations of balancing her career with the challenges of life. She states: “In Rockville Centre, Long Island NY there is a good-sized pond, called Smith Pond, right there in the middle of things- it’s barely separated (on one side) from busy Merrick road- by a few feet of earth, a cement divider and chain link fence. It’s a 5-minute walk from the Hampton hotel, where my 21 year old and I waited out the neurosurgical consult and then their actual neurosurgery; a Cranio-cervical fusion that would hopefully save their life (or at least some quality of life).
For more than two months, being able to walk(or run) to that pond held me together- and was where I processed our losses and gains, all the medical trauma, where I caught a breath from all the heaviness of caregiving somebody so very sick and bedbound …and where I made friends (mostly plants and animals).”
Along with the many creatures Coppini incorporates into her artwork, she has a special interest in the rapid disappearance of honeybees, also known as “colony collapse disorder.” As a result, she has created over 1000 drawings of bees. Her hope in this practice is to create awareness of the significance bumble bees have on mankind. In her own words, Coppini states, “I believe, foolishly or not, in the possibilities of the human race. I believe the act of being called on to make these drawings is something that comes from a force bigger than us. Its stating, here’s what needs attention, listen to the fables being told here. What we do next, what happens to all the imperiled species is, quite literally, up in the air.” Coppini has taken the cause to heart, not only by creating her luscious drawings of bumble bees in flight, but also donating a portion of the sale of each bee drawing to the Xerces Society for pollination research and conservation.
April Coppini
The Pond
We are thrilled to welcome back April Coppini with a new series of charcoal drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she brings a much-anticipated series of gorgeously rendered charcoal (with an occasional punch of pastel) drawings; her first solo show in over two years. Through elegant and expressive mark making she portrays the wild, unseen, and unexpected in her depictions of flora and fauna. This series began its inception from stolen moments of quiet meditation along the banks of a pond. Coppini took solace watching the wildlife within their habitat, finding peace in the rhythm of life from a pond’s edge. The exhibition opens May 11 during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, from 12 – 8 pm and will remain on display through June 3.
After a forced creative hiatus due to circumstances beyond her control, Coppini delivers a new series of expressive and animated drawings. Known for her passionate interest in all creatures and their importance to place, she portrays a focused record in her subject matter, the simple struggle of existence. A slight tension of muscle before a possible leap, or the look of pensive awareness in preparation for escape from a possible predator, are all elegantly conveyed through beautiful and gestural mark making. With the underlying message of the importance of all creatures and their independent role to ecosystem and/or as pollinators, predators, scavengers or even domesticated animals, Coppini asks the viewer to consider the role our species takes (or doesn’t) in protecting the delicate relationship between mankind and animal as well as a direct reminder of our symbiotic relationship to all life on a global level.
Coppini tends to focus primarily on charcoal for her chosen medium because of “its immediacy and forgiving nature.” For her, the starkness of black on white strikes a basic and guttural cord. Within this series there are several pieces that include color, utilized with care to define emotive qualities or even echo elements of subject matter while still allowing for the dominant line of charcoal to do its work. The stark juxtaposition lends to the overall power and drama conveyed in each piece.
This current series began while Coppini was in New York with her eldest child, awaiting a complicated surgery and during the long days of recovery, post op. Coppini had/has little down time where she can focus on her career, the career that supports her and her 3 children. It is through her own tenacity that she was able to create this series of work, having had to cancel multiple exhibitions over the past two years. This body of work echoes the tenacity of life at the side of a pond within a city, the delicate balance of the natural world versus manmade. Within that balance there is still room for nature to thrive, Coppini depicts the quiet beauty that helped keep her grounded during a difficult time.
About this series, The Pond, Coppini candidly brings honesty and reality and shares the tribulations of balancing her career with the challenges of life. She states: “In Rockville Centre, Long Island NY there is a good-sized pond, called Smith Pond, right there in the middle of things- it’s barely separated (on one side) from busy Merrick road- by a few feet of earth, a cement divider and chain link fence. It’s a 5-minute walk from the Hampton hotel, where my 21 year old and I waited out the neurosurgical consult and then their actual neurosurgery; a Cranio-cervical fusion that would hopefully save their life (or at least some quality of life).
For more than two months, being able to walk(or run) to that pond held me together- and was where I processed our losses and gains, all the medical trauma, where I caught a breath from all the heaviness of caregiving somebody so very sick and bedbound …and where I made friends (mostly plants and animals).”
Along with the many creatures Coppini incorporates into her artwork, she has a special interest in the rapid disappearance of honeybees, also known as “colony collapse disorder.” As a result, she has created over 1000 drawings of bees. Her hope in this practice is to create awareness of the significance bumble bees have on mankind. In her own words, Coppini states, “I believe, foolishly or not, in the possibilities of the human race. I believe the act of being called on to make these drawings is something that comes from a force bigger than us. Its stating, here’s what needs attention, listen to the fables being told here. What we do next, what happens to all the imperiled species is, quite literally, up in the air.” Coppini has taken the cause to heart, not only by creating her luscious drawings of bumble bees in flight, but also donating a portion of the sale of each bee drawing to the Xerces Society for pollination research and conservation.
April 2024 Exhibit
Don Frank
Inky Daydreams
April 13 - May 6
We are delighted to welcome back local photographer Don Frank with a new series of photographic prints focusing on the moody and mysterious elements of the region, specifically during the “off season.” For many the winter months are a time of rejuvenation and contemplation. The days are short, weather is strong and endless grey days melt into darkness. For some it’s a time to reconnect to the natural world in a meditative way, preparing for the busyness of the long days of summer. Frank, with his keen eye of observation, brings the beauty of the subtle and the sublime in both his sense of composition and subject matter. Join us for Astoria’s artwalk 12 – 8, Saturday, April 13. Frank will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 6.
Known regionally for his compelling imagery, Frank has always tended to bring what might be considered the more obscure to the foreground. His deep immersion into subject matter within his work always makes for a thought-provoking series, providing contemplative space to consider the quiet beauty of the natural world while also acknowledging the relationship to mankind. His latest series Inky Daydreams is indicative of his approach with sharp focus on minute detail, fading into a subdued palette of soft and obscured background. This intentional delineation of foreground to background forces the importance of what caught his artistic attention. Within each photograph is nuance of nature, a study of texture and color culminating ultimately in elegant beauty.
About this series, Frank states: “The long nights and wet days of Winter in the Northwest can lead to a slowing of the senses that thrive at all other times. But not this year. Instead, this project led to searching for serene still-lifes in the grassy dunes, windy beaches, flowing rivers, and snow-covered forests of this place we call home. These strolls didn’t just result in moody photographs, but were a thoughtful exercise in listening, remembering, and may have included a little trespassing. To top off these wanderings, the images were made with an old medium-format Hasselblad camera and shot on film. The slowness that this process requires was a jolting reminder of how key it is to live in the moment and fondly remember what got us here.”
Frank has enjoyed a career that has taken his work across the country both in galleries and into private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado.
Don Frank
Inky Daydreams
April 13 - May 6
We are delighted to welcome back local photographer Don Frank with a new series of photographic prints focusing on the moody and mysterious elements of the region, specifically during the “off season.” For many the winter months are a time of rejuvenation and contemplation. The days are short, weather is strong and endless grey days melt into darkness. For some it’s a time to reconnect to the natural world in a meditative way, preparing for the busyness of the long days of summer. Frank, with his keen eye of observation, brings the beauty of the subtle and the sublime in both his sense of composition and subject matter. Join us for Astoria’s artwalk 12 – 8, Saturday, April 13. Frank will be at the gallery 5 – 8 pm that evening and available to answer questions about his work. The exhibition will remain on view through May 6.
Known regionally for his compelling imagery, Frank has always tended to bring what might be considered the more obscure to the foreground. His deep immersion into subject matter within his work always makes for a thought-provoking series, providing contemplative space to consider the quiet beauty of the natural world while also acknowledging the relationship to mankind. His latest series Inky Daydreams is indicative of his approach with sharp focus on minute detail, fading into a subdued palette of soft and obscured background. This intentional delineation of foreground to background forces the importance of what caught his artistic attention. Within each photograph is nuance of nature, a study of texture and color culminating ultimately in elegant beauty.
About this series, Frank states: “The long nights and wet days of Winter in the Northwest can lead to a slowing of the senses that thrive at all other times. But not this year. Instead, this project led to searching for serene still-lifes in the grassy dunes, windy beaches, flowing rivers, and snow-covered forests of this place we call home. These strolls didn’t just result in moody photographs, but were a thoughtful exercise in listening, remembering, and may have included a little trespassing. To top off these wanderings, the images were made with an old medium-format Hasselblad camera and shot on film. The slowness that this process requires was a jolting reminder of how key it is to live in the moment and fondly remember what got us here.”
Frank has enjoyed a career that has taken his work across the country both in galleries and into private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado.
